Israel kills 23 in Gaza, targets Hamas commanders
NIDAL AL-MUGHRABI
Reuters, 12 July 2006
Gaza City -- Israel killed at least 23 Palestinians in Gaza on Wednesday, including nine members of one family in an air strike that destroyed a house where the army said senior Hamas commanders were meeting, witnesses said.
Wednesday's death toll was the highest in a single day since Israel on June 28 launched an offensive in the Gaza Strip to force militants to free an abducted soldier and halt rocket attacks on the Jewish state.
It was also the highest number of Palestinian deaths in one day since September 2004.
A series of deadly Israel air raids coincided with an armored sweep into the central Gaza.
The army said the strike on the three-storey house near Gaza City wounded Mohammad Deif, overall leader of the governing Hamas movement's armed wing and Israel's most wanted man.
Senior Palestinian sources said Deif appeared to suffer spinal injuries.
But a spokesman for Hamas's Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades denied Deif was hurt.
The group took part in the capture of Corporal Galid Shalit on June 25, prompting Israel to launch its first ground operations in Gaza since quitting the territory last year.
The air strike killed a local Hamas leader, Nabil Abu Selmeya, his wife and seven sons and daughters aged 7 to 19, medics said. His eldest son, who was not at home, survived.
A later Israeli air strike using two missiles killed at least five other Palestinians, aged 15 to 20, in central Gaza.
Palestinian medics said Israel's air raids and tank shelling had killed a total of 23 people on Wednesday, including militants and one policeman.
The Gaza offensive has killed nearly 80 Palestinians and one soldier, piling pressure on the Hamas government, already reeling from a Western aid embargo.
In a statement, Hamas said Israel "should be prepared for a tough and open-ended confrontation that knows no limitations and no red lines."
Israel has rejected calls from Hamas for negotiations on a prisoner swap for Shalit.
Israel's army said Deif and other armed wing commanders were meeting in the Gaza building. They were targeted because intelligence showed they were planning attacks, it said.
"The fact that the meeting between Deif and the others took place in a residential building is an indication they intended to use the inhabitants as a human shield to protect themselves," a military spokesman said.
One senior Hamas commander, who was not in a life-threatening condition, was among the 35 wounded.
RARELY SEEN
Deif, in his 40s and who is rarely seen in public, has escaped several Israeli assassination attempts. Those close calls have turned him into a folk hero to many Palestinians.
"Israel will pay for daring to hunt the lion of Qassam," said one Hamas activist who gave his name as Ahmed, speaking near the wrecked building, a tangle of twisted metal, broken concrete and blood.
The scene at the bombed Gaza building recalled Israel's assassination of Hamas military commander Salah Shehada in 2002 by dropping a one-tonne bomb on his home. The death of 14 other people in that attack drew a wave of international criticism.
Deif later replaced Shehada.
The Israeli army sent dozens of armoured vehicles into central Gaza before dawn, effectively cutting the territory in two.
On Israel's northern border, the Lebanese guerrilla group Hizbollah captured two Israeli soldiers and killed at least seven Israelis in violence further inflaming Middle East tensions.
Additional reporting by Dan Williams at Kissufim and Jeffrey Heller in Jerusalem